The Dodgers put Jack Dreyer on the 15-day injured list Saturday with left shoulder discomfort and summoned Chayce McDermott from Triple-A Oklahoma City, making a bullpen move one day after a night in which they used eight pitchers to cover all nine innings. Paul Gervase also was called up from Oklahoma City, while Charlie Barnes went back to the minors after pitching on both Friday and Saturday.
Dreyer, who last pitched Friday, threw a scoreless eighth inning with two strikeouts and one walk. He has a 2.08 ERA and 2.73 xERA in 21 2/3 innings this season, with 24 strikeouts and six walks, and this is his first career injured-list stint in either the majors or minors. He had been tied for the team lead with 20 appearances.
McDermott arrives after a season that has moved quickly across organizations. The right-hander was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles on April 16 for minor league pitcher Axel Perez, and he has a 5.27 ERA in Triple-A this year between Norfolk and Oklahoma City. In 13 2/3 innings, he has 25 strikeouts and 14 walks and has not allowed a home run.
He last pitched Tuesday and worked a scoreless inning on 12 pitches. Gervase’s most recent outing came Thursday, when he allowed three runs in 1 2/3 innings on 33 pitches. Barnes, who was recalled Friday when Blake Snell was placed on the injured list, followed that up with scoreless ninth innings on Friday and Saturday before the Dodgers sent him back to Oklahoma City.
The shuffle fits the moment the Dodgers are in. Snell was scratched from his Friday start and is going to have surgery on Tuesday, a setback that is expected to cost him a few months. That left the club searching for fresh arms even before Dreyer’s shoulder became an issue, and the bullpen turned over fast once the weekend games were over.
For now, the Dodgers have traded one set of innings for another, hoping McDermott and Gervase can absorb the load while Dreyer is sidelined and the rotation remains unsettled. The next test comes quickly: whether the new arms can cover the kind of work the club has already burned through this week.
